On a fishing trip in 1946, Birnie Hodgetts and his brother Ted, paddled into what is now Hurontario's main camp bay. They pitched camp and spent a stormy night waiting for dawn to bring them the opportunity to explore this incredible sheltered bay they had found. Soon they realized that they were on a large and very beautiful island surrounded by pristine lands .After much exploring of who owned the island and the mainland across from the island( Birnie was a visionary who knew that in time he had to have the far shore so in future summers no one could build across from camp island),Birnie set out to find out who owned the property.
Title searches turned up the owners of the lsland .The island was for sale but acquiring the big mainland property was not going to be so easy.Mr Kingsmill owned the 150 acres deeded to him by Queen Victoria for fighting in the terrible Boer War. On hearing Birnie's vision for a children's camp, Mr. Kingsmill wrote back to say he would be happy to sell the property but that he would like to run the camp in partnership with Birnie. Birnie was keen to be sole owner and creator of his vision for a camp and so wrote this back to Mr. Kingsmill. For a long time no more was heard from Mr. Kingsmill and Birnie's vision seemed more and more a remote dream. And then one day, Birnie received a letter from Mr. Kingsmill from Mexico where he was living telling Birnie that he had fallen in love with a Mexican girl called Carmelita whom he wanted to marry.
Now Carmelita was happy to marry Mr. Kingsmill but her wedding present was to be an English grand piano with music lessons- and Mr. Kingsmill mentioned this to Birnie as Mr. Kingsmill did not have the capabilities to get this piano for his Carmelita.Soon there after, Birnie arranged for a piano to be shipped from England,piano lessons were arranged all in exchange for 150 amazing acres of land in the Georgian Bay!
And so for the price of a piano and piano lessons and a girl called Carmelita ,Hurontario became a camp now enjoying its 71st summer in the Bay.
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